Winter Sparks
by Fanatic1234
Summary: Whilst snowed in at Ashdene Ridge, Jody and Tyler pass the time by pulling a prank on Ryan, who insulted Jody about a date she has to miss. NOW INCLUDES VALENTINES DAY FINALE!
1. Information

As promised, here is my Christmas story for 2017! It may not be to everybody's taste as it is a bit of a romance story, but I really hope you like it! I'll start off by sharing the synopsis with you:

Whilst snowed in at Ashdene Ridge, Jody and Tyler pass the time by pulling a prank on Ryan, who insulted Jody about a date she has to miss.

Like it? I promise it's better than it sounds, and that's not all, there is an epilogue chapter set on Christmas Eve! Setting a deadline for my chapters on my Halloween story really helped me out, so I've decided when I'm going to upload each chapter, so here is an overview below for you:

Chapter 1: Friday 1st December 2017

Chapter 2: Thursday 7th December 2017

Chapter 3: Tuesday 12th December 2017

Chapter 4: Monday 18th December 2017

Chapter 5 (epilogue): Sunday 24th December 2017

This story does only have 5 chapters, due to the plot not being too thick, but I'm hoping some of them may be quite long ones. The story will be updated every 5-6 days, starting from the 1st of December and ending in Christmas Eve!

Also, I'm really sorry I didn't manage to get another chapter of Lottery done, but I've been really busy with college lately. I'm settling in a bit more now, and should be able to write a new chapter for it soon. Anyway, I'll see you all next week, on Friday 1st December, for the first chapter of my Christmas story!

~ Fanatic1234


	2. Chapter 1

It was a week before Christmas at Ashdene Ridge, and the residents sit at the breakfast table eating breakfast. Having broken up from school the previous day, the kids had got a well deserved lay in! Mike began to pour the juices whilst the others chatted excitedly about their Christmas plans.

"Me and Sasha are spending Christmas with our mum, right Sash?" Dexter told his friends, Joseph and Archie.

"Yep!" Sasha agreed.

"Hopefully I've been good enough to get a visit from Santa this year." Archie said.

"Oh I'm sure Santa will be paying you a visit, Archie." Mike smiled, pouring Archie a drink.

"What about me?" Taz asked.

"I'm sure all of you will get a visit from Santa." Mike said, noticing that some of the other residents were about to ask the same question.

"Are you seeing your mum for Christmas, Tyler?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, we arranged it ages ago, she's really excited." Tyler answered.

"What about you Jody, aren't you seeing your brother or something?" Sasha asked.

"Yeah, I'm seeing Luke for Christmas." Jody nodded.

"I wish I could go somewhere for Christmas." Candi-Rose sulked.

"Don't worry, Christmas at the Dumping Ground is the best!" Finn told Candi-Rose.

"Really? What happens?" Charlie asked.

"Well, there's a massive turkey, everything you could imagine having with a Christmas dinner, movies, charades, and a massive cake and loads of chocolate!" Floss explained.

"Wow, that actually sounds bearable." Alex said.

"Oh, stop being such a bah humbug!" Joseph said.

"What? I'm just not in the Christmas spirit yet." Alex defended.

"Plus, not _everyone_ likes Christmas." Ryan added.

"I don't get how you can't love it Ryan!" Chloe exclaimed.

"Just don't." Ryan shrugged.

"I mean my only experience of Christmas that I can remember is watching everyone else having a great time whilst you're just sitting, freezing cold." Alex said. Everyone went silent. As they remembered that most of Alex's Christmases would've been spent on the street.

"Mike, could I get a lift out later?" Jody asked.p, breaking the silence and changing the subject.

"Where are you going? And who with?" Mike questioned.

"Erm..." Jody started uneasily, when suddenly the office phone began ringing.

"Just a sec." Mike said, rushing into the office.

"Wonder who that could be so early." Tyler said, still trying to distract from the previous topic.

"Probably a junk call." Floss shrugged.

"Oh, okay." Mike said into the phone, re-entering the kitchen.

"No, no, that's fine May-Li, see you when you get here...bye." Mike hung up the phone.

"What's going on with May-Li?" Candi-Rose asked.

"The roads have all closed, so she can't get here just yet." Mike explained.

"Wait what!" Jody cried, earning her a few funny looks.

"Why are the roads closed?" Ryan asked.

"Have none of you looked outside today?" Mike asked, pointing to the window. The kids all scrambled up and over to the window.

"It's snowing!" Taz cried.

"Has been all night. They're trying to clear the roads but it's so deep that they may not reopen until tomorrow morning." Mike told the kids.

"Tomorrow morning! But that's no good!" Jody yelled.

"I'm sorry, Jody, looks like you won't be going anywhere, unless you can walk. Where is it you need to go?" Mike asked.

"Town." Jody said.

"Town's less than a mile away! You can walk, or get the bus." Mike suggested.

"Mike, you don't get it!" Jody said. "I can't walk or get the bus."

"Why not?" Mike sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Coz...it'll mess up my hair." Jody mumbled.

"Since when do you care about what your hair looks like?" Tyler teased, earning himself a kick from Jody under the table.

"Why does it matter what your hair looks like?" Mike asked.

"Because...look can we just discuss this in private?" Jody asked.

"Definitely not anymore." Ryan said, raising an eyebrow.

"I have a date tonight! See, not that interesting!" Jody said.

"A date? You didn't tell me about this!" Tyler said, giving his best friend a nudge.

"And that's exactly why!" Jody frowned, kicking him under the table again.

"This is _so_ great! Your first ever date!" Candi-Rose squealed.

"Hey! How do you know it's my first ever date!" Jody snapped.

"Well is it?" Chloe asked.

"Yes." Jody muttered.

"Who's the lucky guy then?" Candi-Rose asked.

"Lucky!" Ryan scoffed.

"Got a problem Ryan?" Jody asked.

"Nope, not at all." Ryan said, obviously trying not to laugh.

"Come on, Ryan, cut Jody some slack, she's never had a date before." Mike warned.

"Not surprised." Ryan mumbled.

"What are you trying to say Ryan!" Jody asked, raising her voice slightly.

"I don't know, you just don't seem like the type of girl who would get a date." Ryan said.

"Ryan!" Mike warned again.

"No, not like that! I just mean that Jody doesn't seem like the type of girl to want to go on a date." Ryan tried to explain.

"Right." Jody scoffed.

"Anyway, who is he?" Chloe asked.

"His name's Will." Jody said, smiling at the mention of his name.

"Will? As in Will from my maths who I introduced you to a couple of weeks ago?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah, him." Jody said.

"Since when were you two so close?" Tyler questioned.

"Well, we hung out when you had lunchtime detention all last week." Jody said.

"Wait what?" Mike asked.

"Nothing!" Tyler quickly said.

"And we just got close." Jody finished.

"Oh, right." Tyler shrugged.

"Anyway, I've gotta do a thing, somewhere else." Jody said, getting up to leave. Tyler noticed that something seemed off with his friend.

"Yeah, me too." He said, and stood up to follow Jody.

* * *

"Hey." He said, when he found her in the living room. "What's up?"

"Nothing." Jody said. "Sorry I nearly gave away your detentions."

"Don't worry about it...are you upset you can't go on your date?" Tyler asked, taking a seat next to her on the sofa.

"Well yeah. But it's not just that." Jody explained.

"What else is it?" Tyler questioned. Jody opened her mouth to speak, but then changed her mind.

"Doesn't matter." She said.

"Don't listen to Ryan. He's just a wind up." Tyler said.

"Yeah, but..."

"Listen, I've got a great idea to pay Ryan back. My pranking days aren't over just yet, and I hope yours aren't too...after last time." Tyler said.

"As long as it doesn't involve my phone, I'm in!" Jody exclaimed, high-5ing Tyler.

"I overheard everyone talking about going to play in the snow. Now as much as Ryan's the biggest Scrooge in the house, he doesn't mind the snow too much, so once everyone's outside, we can complete our prank by covering the whole of Ryan's room, including his clothes anything loose, in newspaper." Tyler explained.

"It's perfect, but where are we gonna get all that newspaper from?" Jody asked.

"Easy, I always have a stash, just in case I ever need this prank." Tyler told her.

"Brilliant, let's get going then, if we wanna get it done in time." Jody suggested.

"Good thinking." Tyler agreed, and the pair headed upstairs to get their prank on Ryan underway.

* * *

 **Boom! Chapter 1, done! How are you liking it so far? I really hope I got the new characters right! Also sorry that this chapter is pretty much one big paragraph, there was no where appropriate for a line break apart from the one, but the next one will be structured a lot better hopefully! Happy December! Advent officially starts here, and what better way to kick it off than with a brand new episode of The Dumping Ground tonight?! Please review what you think of this story, as I love hearing what you think, and I'll see you on Thursday 7th December for chapter 2! See you soon!**

 **~ Fanatic1234**


	3. Chapter 2

"Where should we start then?" Jody asked. Having noticed that the others had just gone outside, and probably wouldn't be in for a while, Jody and Tyler were setting up the bits and pieces needed for their prank on Ryan.

"We should get the walls done first, and then the floor. All the bigger things first, as it wouldn't matter too much if we couldn't get all the smaller stuff." Tyler suggested.

"Good idea. And what exactly are we sticking it with? We can't use tape or glue." Jody pointed out.

"I've got that covered. Mike has this special tape that won't damage the walls, he uses it to stick stuff up all the time." Tyler explained.

"Perfect! Then I think we're good to go!" Jody said, and she and Tyler began to newspaper Ryan's room.

* * *

"Can we build a snowman?" Floss asked.

"That's a great idea!" May-Li smiled. "Girls, we'll work on the head and boys, you get going with the body."

"You're on!" Dexter cried, as both teams got to work in their part of the snowman. The girls used some stones from the garden for the eyes and mouth, and used a carrot for its nose before placing an old hat on its head and grabbing its matching scarf. The boys used stones for the buttons, grabbed some twigs for the arms and some gloves for the hands. The girls attached their head onto the boy's body to make the snowman complete.

"He could do with some makeup." Candi-Rose said.

"What's gonna be his name?" Archie asked.

"Who says it's a he?" Floss pointed out.

"Well, the hat and scarf are quite boyish." Chloe pointed out.

"Fine!" Floss sulked.

"We should call him Simon." Charlie suggested. "Simon the Snowman."

"I like it." Mike agreed, when suddenly,mine felt something pelt into his back. He turned around to see Finn stood behind him trying to look innocent.

"Snowball fight!" He cried, and everyone joined in, throwing snowballs at one another until there was hardly any snow left.

"Should we go to the park and do some tobogganing?" May-Li suggested, and everyone cheered.

"Alright then. I'll go and grab the toboggan from the shed and May-Li, could you let Jody and Tyler know? Where are those two anyway?"

"Jody's probably preparing for her date." Candi-Rose said.

"It's only 2 o clock." Mike pointed out.

"Hey, it's a big step." Candi-Rose defended. Mike chuckled.

"Whatever you say." He said.

* * *

Jody and Tyler were just making a start on the floor of Ryan's room.

"I hear someone coming!" Jody cried.

"Quickly get out!" Tyler said, pointing to the door, so the pair quickly ran out of Ryan's room, down the corridor to Tyler's.

"Tyler? Jody?" May-Li called whilst knocking on the door.

"Yeah." Tyler said.

"We're just popping I get to the park for a bit, do you two wanna join us?" May-Li asked.

"No you're alright. I've got to have a shower before my date and Tyler's gonna help me choose what to wear." Jody lied, causing Tyler to give her a look.

"Okay, well, see you guys later then." May-Li said, sounding slightly confused. The pair stayed in Tyler's room until they heard the door lock.

"Tyler's gonna help me choose what to wear?" Tyler questioned Jody.

"It was the first lie I thought of!" Jody defended. Tyler continued to laugh as the pair entered Ryan's room and got going on their prank again.

"So, what happened then?" Tyler asked.

"What do you mean?" Jody frowned.

"With Will. How did it happen?"

"Oh! Well after you introduced us, we continued to hang out when you had those lunchtime detentions - I told you those two chemicals would explode, Tyler - and then he asked me out two days ago. I was completely shocked..."

"Why?" Tyler asked.

"I don't know...I mean, I guess I've never really thought about boys, at least not until everyone you and I were a couple, that was when I realised that maybe having a boyfriend wouldn't be awful. But I just never imagined someone like Will would ask me out." Jody said.

"Why though?" Tyler frowned.

"I don't know really. I just never imagined any guy would ever like me...I mean I'm not exactly a girly girl am I?" Jody said.

"Not all guys want a girly girl though." Tyler pointed out.

"I guess not." Jody sighed.

"Before he asked you out, did you like him?" Tyler asked.

"Well, a bit, but I talked myself out of it, coz I thought he'd never like me back. But as soon as he asked me out the feelings resurfaced and I really couldn't believe it." Jody explained.

"He didn't ask you out via text, did he?" Tyler asked.

"No. It was after school. I was waiting for you coz you were getting a homework lecture from the French teacher..."

"Jeez, you forget your homework one time!"

"And he came up to me and asked me."

"Good. I would've been having words with him if he'd asked you out over text." Tyler said.

"Why?" Jody questioned.

"Guys should never ask out girls via text, they should always do it person so they don't seem like a coward." Tyler explained.

"Yeah, coz you have so much experience with girls!" Jody teased.

"Hey! Anyway I think the floors pretty much done, we should move onto the shelves and desk." Tyler suggested, and the pair got to work.

* * *

After ridding the park of all its snow, the residents returned to Ashdene Ridge for a hot chocolate and a snack.

"This is so boring, isn't it." Jody asked.

"I'd rather watch paint dry." Tyler complained.p, when suddenly, they could hear footsteps entering the house.

"They're back!" Exclaimed Tyler.

"What do we do?" Jody asked in a panic. The pair turned silent so they could hear the conversation from downstairs.

"Do you all want a hot chocolate and a snack?" Mike asked. Very one cheered and the footsteps all got quieter as they neared the kitchen.

"Phew! I'd say we still have about half an hour to get this done, and we can totally do it." Jody said optimistically.

"Me too!" Tyler said, high-5ing Jody, as the lair got back to work, a little faster than before though. Before long, they were done with Ryan's room and were standing admiring their work.

"It's perfect!" Jody smiled.

"That'll teach him to be mean to you again!" Tyler said, as him and Jody snuck out of Ryan's room and downstairs to see if they could get a hot chocolate. Upon entering the kitchen, they saw two mugs of hot chocolate sat on the side not being drunk.

"Yes, they're for you." May-Li said, seeing the look on the pairs' faces. Jody and Tyler thanked May-Li and took their mugs of hot chocolate before joint the others at the kitchen table. Everyone drunk their hot chocolate and chatted excitedly about Christmas, until everyone was done and parted their separate ways. Jody and Tyler remained in the kitchen.

"He's gonna find it soon." Jody whispered to Tyler.

"I know, this is gonna be great!" Tyler whispered back.

"What are you two whispering about?" Sasha asked suspiciously.

"Nothing." Jody and Tyler chorused, causing Sasha to raid an eyebrow and take a seat at the other end of the table.

"Jody, Tyler, explain why my room's covered in newspaper!" Ryan demanded angrily, storming into the kitchen.

"What makes you think it was us?" Jody asked defensively, although it was pretty obvious she was trying not to laugh.

"What's going on here?" Mike asked, as him and May-Li entered the kitchen.

"Have you seen my room?" Ryan asked crossly.

"No, why?" Mike frowned.

"It's covered, top to bottom, in newspaper! How am I gonna get it all off!" Ryan pointed out.

"Guys!" Mike sighed, looking at Jody and Tyler.

"Don't worry Mike, we used your special tape so the wall'll be fine." Tyler said, handing Mike his tape.

"Why did you guys do that?" May-Li asked, although she also seemed to be trying not laugh, but she was trying a lot harder not to show it.

"I didn't like the way Ryan spoke about me at breakfast." Jody answered. "I was kind of offended by the things he said about me having a date, so..."

"I suggested we pull a prank to teach him a lesson." Tyler finished.

"Well, it seems like you're both even now." May-Li said.

"And in luck. The lads around here are open again so I can drop you for your date after all." Mike announced.

"Really?" Tyler asked, sounding (oddly) slightly disappointed.

"Yes! I'd better text Will and let him know I can make it after all!" Jody said, rushing out of the kitchen.

"Since when do you have his number." Tyler asked, but Jody was already gone.

"She seems happy." May-Li said.

"Yeah." Tyler sighed.

"Are you okay?" May-Li asked.

"Oh, me? Yeah, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" Tyler answered quickly.

"Okay, well you guys might as well make up." May-Li prompted. So Tyler and Ryan made up quickly, and as soon as Jody returned from texting Will, she made up with Ryan too, and Mike and May-Li left the kitchen.

"Maybe I was a bit mean this morning." Ryan realised.

"Wow! Ryan Reeves actually admitting to being in the wrong. I never thought I'd see the day!" Tyler joked. Ryan rolled his eyes, yet smiled.

"Well, if I can have this date after all, I'd better start getting ready." Jody said, before leaving the kitchen once again and heading upstairs. Tyler smiled after her.

"You alright mate?" Ryan asked him.

"Yeah fine. I just never imagined Jody would get so enthusiastic over a boy." Tyler answered.

"Honestly, me neither." Ryan agreed. "It seems quite un-Jody-like."

"Will must be pretty important to her for her to act like that. But he'd better be good to her coz otherwise he'll have me to answer to. Yeah, he may be one of my best mates but Jody's like my sister."

"If you say so." Ryan muttered.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing."

"I'm gonna get rid of some of that newspaper my toms covered in - fancy giving me a hand?" Ryan asked, laughing slightly.

"Yeah alright." Tyler agreed, and the boys headed upstairs to undo the successful prank Jody and Tyler had just pulled.

* * *

 **Hey everyone! I'm so sorry this is coming to you 3 days late - I was poorly on Wednesday when I wanted to write this for Thursday! But here it is - chapter 2! Hope you're enjoying it so far! I'm aware that the next chapter is supposed to be up on Tuesday, but chances are it'll be more like Wednesday. Having said that, I don't have work on Monday, which is another contributing factor to my rubbish updating skills! Please review and tell me what you think if it so far, and enjoy your week!**

 **~ Fanatic1234 x**


	4. Chapter 3

**Thanks so much to Linneagb and teeandryan123 for reviewing! I love both of your stories!**

* * *

"I think you should definitely wear a dress!" Exclaimed Candi-Rose, as she flipped through the clothes in Jody's wardrobe to help her find an outfit for her date.

"Absolutely not!" Jody protested.

"But it's a first date!" Candi-Rose argued.

"I don't care if it's a first date or not! Will should get to see the real me, and the real me would _never_ wear a dress!" Jody explained.

"Okay, I suppose that's true." Candi-Rose agreed.

"Why don't you go for a skirt? I have this blue denim one that would look great on you." Chloe suggested. Jody still looked unsure.

"At least try it. And if you hate it, you can take if off again and you can wear some jeans or something." Chloe said.

"Okay fine." Jody sighed, so Chloe left for her room to get the skirt.

"Ooh! And you could borrow my pink..."

"I'm not wearing pink." Jody interrupted.

"What's wrong with pink!" Candi-Rose defended.

"Everything! It makes me feel sick!" Jody said. Candi-Rose rolled her eyes discreetly, realising how much of a challenge this was going to be!

* * *

Meanwhile, Tyler was sat in the living room staring st some random show he'd found to watch in the TV. Since Jody was getting read and would be out soon, he knew he was going to be bored all evening.

"Hey Tyler! You alright?" Sasha asked, entering the living room.

"Yeah! Why wouldn't I be?" Tyler answered a bit too quickly.

"No reason, you just look a bit bored." Sasha said, frowning slightly.

"Do you not see what's going on Sash?" Ryan asked.

"What's that?" Sasha questioned.

"Tyler's jealous about Jody's boyfriend." Ryan said joking, and Sasha caught on.

"He's not her boyfriend...not yet anyway...and I'm not jealous!" Tyler said quickly.

"Are you sure?" Sasha joked.

"Absolutely! Why would I be? I mean it's not like...it's not as if...I'm not jealous okay!" Tyler said, before getting up abruptly and leaving the room. Sasha and Ryan sat down on the sofa.

"I was just messing about when I said he was jealous, but after that reaction, I think he might be yanno." Ryan told Sasha.

"You could be right. It's almost as if he thought we were being serious." Sasha said.

"Or maybe he's just in a bad mood, for whatever reason. Maybe he's still frustrated about me making fun of Jody this morning." Ryan suggested.

"I thought he got even, which was brilliant by the way!" Sasha laughed.

"Yeah, ha ha! At lest your room's not covered in layers of newspaper!" Ryan said, although he was smiling slightly.

"But if he is jealous...what would that mean?" Ryan asked. Sasha shrugged.

"Maybe he likes her."

* * *

"What do you think?" Chloe asked.

"I'm not sure." Jody said.

"It looks perfect! All you have to do now is style it with a cute jumper or something, and then we can do your hair and makeup..." Candi-Rose started.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hair and makeup?" Jody questioned.

"Err, yeah! What did you honk all the spare time was for?" Candi-Rose asked.

"I don't know, watching telly?" Jody shrugged. "I'm not wearing any makeup anyway so you can forget that idea."

"What! You're no fun!" Candi-Rose moaned.

"Candi, this isn't meant to be fun! I'm just getting ready to go out. Like I would any other night." Jody told Candi-Rose.

"Except this time you could get a boyfriend out of it." Candi-Rose added.

"Well there is that." Jody said, smiling slightly.

"Right, so what are we going for then?" Chloe asked.

"The denim skirt with the tights, the black jumper with the roll neck and the brown boots." Jody decided.

"Perfect!" Candi-Rose squealed. "Right, we'll leave so you can get changed, but as soon as you're done call us back in to do hair, since you don't want makeup."

So Jody quickly got dressed and then Chloe and Candi-Rose re-entered the room.

"I love it!" Exclaimed Candi-Rose.

"Yeah, it looks great!" Chloe agreed.

"Good, now all I need to do is retie back my hair..."

"Into what?" Candi-Rose asked curiously.

"A ponytail of course." Jody responded.

"What! No! You've got to wear it down, it looks so good with the outfit." Candi-Rose argued.

"Candi you know I don't like wearing my hair down!" Jody protested.

"Trust me on this!" Candi-Rose said, pulling Jody's hair out of the ponytail it was already in.

"Candi!" Exclaimed Jody.

"Look, I just want to brush it whilst it's down, and you can see what it looks like, and if you still don't like it we can out it back." Candi-Rose explained. Jody groaned, but nodded. And it turned out that she liked it down after all.

"Could I pretty please put some lipgloss on you?" Candi-Rose begged.

"No! Listen, you got me in a skirt, you got me to wear my hair down, now can you please just leave it there?" Jody asked.

"I think that's fair, right Candi-Rose?" Chloe said. Candi-Rose nodded, although still looked a bit disappointed. Then suddenly, there was a knock on the door from downstairs.

"Wonder who that could be at this time?" Chloe frowned. So the girls went downstairs to check it out.

* * *

Upon hearing the doorbell, Tyler went to the door and answered it, to see none other than his maths friend Will.

"Will? I thought you and Jody were meeting in town?" Tyler frowned.

"We were, but I thought I'd come and get her." Will explained.

"Oh." Tyler said. "Well, come in. I'll just go get her."

But he didn't need to, for coming down the stairs at the very moment was Jody herself. She was wearing a denim skirt, which surprised Tyler as Jody was never usually the sort to wear a skirt, along with a black jumper. Her hair was down, which Tyler also thought was unusual as she would usually wear it up in a ponytail. He didn't realise how much he'd been staring until he heard talking next to him.

"Will? What are you doing here? I thought we were meeting in town?" Jody asked, sounding flustered. Tyler couldn't help but smile slightly at her sudden panic.

"Well, I thought I'd make sure you got there okay, with it being icy and everything." Will explained.

"Oh. Well thanks." Jody said, sounding genuinely shocked. Tyler accidentally rolled his eyes.

"It's alright. And you look so great by the way!" Will added.

"Thanks." Jody said, blushing slightly. Tyler frowned - he'd never seen Jody blush before.

"Who was at the door?" Mike asked, coming out of the office. "Oh...hello."

"Mike, this is Will." Jody said.

"Sorry I just turned up here uninvited. I just wanted to make sure Jody got into town okay coz of the ice." Will said.

"Oh, no don't worry! I can give you both a lift in a sec, I just need to let May-Li know where we're going. She's in the kitchen, so back in sec." Mike said,me fore leaving the hallway.

"I better get my coat." Jody said, heading back upstairs. She returned shortly, as did Mike.

"Right then, let's go!" Mike exclaimed, grabbing his car keys from the office and heading for the front door.

"Bye! Have fun!" Candi-Rose called as the pair left.

"Bye!" Jody called back. "Bye Tyler!" Jody called.

"Bye." Tyler said, more miserably than intending, knowing that he was going to have a boring evening. But there was another reason Tyler was miserable. But he wasn't sure what he could do about it now. He did worry he'd upset Jody by his sendoff though, as she saw her frowning slightly at him before she closed the door to leave. Tyler went to make his way back into the living room, only to be stopped by Sasha.

"Are you okay? What's going on?" She asked. Tyler sighed.

"Listen, you can't tell anyone about this coz they're gonna react badly, but I've got a bad feeling about this." Tyler explained.

"About what?" Sasha asked in confusion.

"The date of course! I don't know, I just feel like something's gonna go wrong and Jody's gonna get hurt." Tyler said.

"Will seemed perfectly alright to me." Sasha said suspiciously.

"I know Will better than you do. He wouldn't just show up anywhere out of the blue like that." Tyler said. "And I've never seen him act like that towards any other girl he's been on a date with."

"Act like what?" Sasha questioned.

"Saying they look nice." Tyler said.

"How do you know?" Sasha asked.

"Most of the time he invites the girl to his house and gets his mum to cook them a meal, and he makes me come over to help him set it up and as soon as the girl gets there, I leave." Tyler explained. "But his mum's say at the moment which is why him and Jody are going into town for a meal."

"Well, maybe Jody's special to him." Sasha suggested. Tyler gulped at those words. "And she did look nice."

"True."

"What?"

"Nothing! Look, like I said, Will's not like that, and there's the fact that he's had lots of dates before! He's a bit of a player of you ask me, and I don't want to see Jody get hurt." Tyler said.

"Well, if you ask me, he seemed really nice, and he definitely cares about Jody, and I know you do too, so I'm telling you, don't get in the way. You don't want to lose your friendship with her." Sasha said, before going upstairs, thinking to herself along the way.

"He's so jealous."

* * *

 **Hey guys! Sorry this is up so late in the day, I had college til 4:15 then had to go straight to work from college for 5 and my shift ended at 8! But technically it's still the 12th so it's on time and I have surprised myself! Please let me know what you think so far! There's only one more chapter left before the epilogue, and that chapter will be up on Monday 18th December - the day before I break up from school for the Christmas break!**

 **Now, for all you Lottery readers out there, I would _love_ to bring you an update immediately after Christmas, but I'm pretty busy until the new year; I'm going shopping on the 27th/28th and the other spare time I have after Boxing Day will be spent packing for my holiday to Disneyland Paris! So I'll definitely be inspired to write when I get back! So Lottery will be updated in 2018! Sorry it's been so long!**

 **Anyway, super long AN over, I'll see you all next Monday for the final proper chapter! Enjoy the rest of your week!**

 **~ Fanatic1234 xx 😊**


	5. Chapter 4

**Thank you so much to Hedwig467 for your kind review!**

* * *

"Thanks for giving me a lift Mike." Jody said miserably, getting out of the car and slamming the door behind her.

"That's alright Jody, and I'm really sorry it didn't work out tonight." Mike said apologetically, before locking the car. He let the pair into the house, which was dark as all the lights were turned out and most of the residents were upstairs asleep.

"I'm just gonna grab some water, night Mike." Jody whispered.

"Night." Mike said, heading up to the spare bedroom as he was stuck on a night shift. Jody entered the kitchen and quickly drank a cup of water, wanting to get to bed herself and forget about the evening she'd had, which hadn't gone as well as she'd hoped. On her way up out of the kitchen, she noticed a light coming from the living room, and stopped in her tracks only to see Tyler sat in the sofa on his phone.

"Tyler?" She whispered, entering the living room from the joint door from the kitchen. "What are you still doing up, everyone else is in bed?"

"You're not." Tyler pointed out. Jody rolled her eyes.

"Yeah coz I just got back, you know that." Jody said, sitting down on the sofa next to her friend.

"Yeah...how was it anyway?" Tyler asked.

"I don't really wanna talk about it." Jody sighed.

"What!" Tyler frowned. "What did he do?"

"It doesn't matter." Jody shrugged, looking in the opposite direction of Tyler.

"It does if he hurt you." Tyler said.

"He didn't." Jody said, but Tyler could tell instantly that she was lying.

"You know I can tell when you're lying right? I've known you quite a long time. Now tell me the truth." Tyler said. Jody sighed.

"Well, it was alright at first. We were talking, getting to know each other for a bit. And then after the waitress took our orders it all went downhill. It started off with Will attempting to flirt with the waitress, who couldn't have been much older than us, but she shut that down straight away realising he was on a date...but I assumed he was just messing around, I mean I do know what he's like and I even laughed along when she shut him down. But then there were some other girls from school there, celebrating a birthday or something, and he kept staring at them, and he's not exactly _bad_ looking so they were looking back. So he wasn't listening to anything I was saying, or paying any attention to me for that matter. And then after we finished eating, right before dessert, he said he needed the loo. And I got a bit worried when he wasn't back about fifteen minutes later. But I look up at the girls from school and there he is, casually sat at their table, obviously flirting with one of them! So I just left my share of the money on the table with a note telling him I wasn't feeling very well and phoned Mike to get me from round the corner so he couldn't catch up with me...but I bet he didn't care anyway. In fact I wouldn't mind betting he's forgotten I was even there at one point and he's still flirting with that girl, probably kissing by now." Jody explained.

"I knew it!" Tyler said.

"What?"

"I had a bad feeling about this as soon as he got here. I didn't tell you coz this is the first date you've ever been in and didn't wanna ruin it for you, especially if I had been wrong. You can ask Sasha, we had a conversation about this earlier on." Tyler explained.

"How did you know just from those few minutes it was gonna go wrong?" Jody questioned.

"I don't know, I just had a bad feeling about it." Tyler answered. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, maybe all this could've been prevented."

"No, like you said, wouldn't have listened to you!" Jody said, smiling slightly.

"Also why did you give him any money for the dinner? For behaving like that he should've paid for it all!" Tyler pointed out.

"Just in case he forgot about this whole evening completely." Jody said, looking at the ground.

"I'm sure he had a great time before he noticed those other girls." Tyler said comfortingly.

"Gee, thanks Tyler, I feel so much better now!" Jody said sarcastically, getting up to leave.

"Jody wait, I didn't mean it like that." Tyler said, about to get up to follow her, but Jody turned around to face him.

"What _did_ you mean then?" Jody asked.

"I just meant that I'm really sorry your first ever date went so badly." Tyler said. Jody looked down and shuffled her feet in the floor.

"It doesn't matter. I mean, I shouldn't have been so surprised." Jody said, sitting back down.

"What do you mean?" Tyler frowned, sitting back down next to her.

"I don't know, I mean the other girl he was flirting with...she was just a lot more...different than I am. She seemed way more his type than me." Jody explained.

"What makes you think that other girl was more his type?" Tyler asked.

"I don't know...she seemed a lot more girly than me I guess. And like I said earlier, I never thought any guy would go out with me and I guess I was right all along" Jody shrugged. "What's with all the questions anyway?"

"Nothing, I just wanna make sure that you're not putting yourself down." Tyler said. "And Will's just an idiot for behaving like that on a first date...don't think of yourself like that just because of him."

"Maybe you're right, I mean I knew Will was a player when he asked me out, and I guess it's my fault for not saying no." Jody pointed out.

"None of this is your fault, Jody! Will shouldn't have treated you in that way, and trust me when I see him after the Christmas break we will be having words." Tyler said.

"You don't need to that, just leave it." Jody requested. "Thanks anyway though."

"Are you sure? We could prank him for revenge like with Ryan!" Tyler suggested.

"I don't want to make it any worse. Will probably hates me just leaving anyway, and I guess if all boys are like Will then I'll never get a boyfriend."

"Not all boys are like that!" Tyler defended.

"Oh really?" Jody asked, easing an eyebrow slightly.

"Yeah! And I'll prove it to you! Next Saturday we'll go out for a meal and I'll prove to you what real gentlemen are like!"

"You're on!" Exclaimed Jody. "What are we betting?"

"Nothing! This is just me making up to you an awful experience you had, whilst proving you wrong! It's already a win-win!" Tyler explained.

"Okay fine! Anyway, I'm getting quite tired, so I'm gonna head up. Just one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"What were you doing up when I got back?" Jody asked. Tyler smiled slightly.

"I had to find out how it went and make sure you were alright if it went wrong. Have I proved you wrong yet?" Tyler then left and went upstairs, leaving Jody stood there frowning slightly. She rolled her eyes before following him and heading to bed herself.

* * *

 **Hiya everyone! Thanks for reading! Bad news; this is the last chapter! Apart from the Christmas Eve epilogue of course! And in other bad news, The Dumping Ground series 5 ends this week, which is sad, but we get an hour long special, _Dumpimg Ground Island_ , so it's not all bad news! From the teaser clip this looks like a great episode! And was it me or were Jody and Tyler about to kiss at the end of that clip? Or did my eyes deceive me? You decide in the reviews, and also let me know what you think of this story! Now I'll see you on Christmas Eve for the epilogue!**

 **~ Fanatic1234 xx**


	6. Epilogue

**Thanks to name for your kind review and prediction! And thanks again to Hedwig467 and Linneagb for your continued support!**

* * *

Christmas Eve rolled around soon enough, and the residents were all excited! Christmas Eve in the DG was usually the last day that everyone spent together before Christmas itself, as some residents would see their families on Christmas Day, but not many residents were leaving this year. Christmas Eve morning was spent chilling out; wrapping gifts if needed and May-Li even needed to buy a few! Mike had to collect the turkey and sort out the Christmas dinner ready for the next day and grab some snacks for Christmas Eve, like popcorn ready for the traditional festive film and whipped cream for the game pie face, which Floss received as a present last Christmas. End the day would end with a bit of a party going into the evening. At around 12:30, May-Li sorted the residents with a simple lunch, consisting of sandwiches and a few other bits, before Mike got back from the shopping with the snacks for the movie. Although there seemed to be an odd atmosphere at the lunch table, and no one could quite put their finger on what it was. May-Li would try and make simple conversation, and most residents would join in, but two voices couldn't be heard over lunch, from opposite ends of the table.

"You two are quiet, are you alright?" May-Li asked, signalling to Jody and Tyler.

"Yeah, fine." They shrugged, slightly awkwardly, before suddenly seeming very concentrated on their lunches. May-Li couldn't help but frown, especially given that the pair were sat at opposite ends of the table when usually you'd would never see them apart. And they'd been two of the first in the kitchen, so it wasn't as if they were the only two seats left.

"Sasha? D'you know what's going on with Jody and Tyler? They've been like this all morning?" May-Li asked Sasha, as she did the washing up.

"All I know is that they went out last night." Sasha answered.

"You mean like a date?" May-Li asked.

"Not too sure. Mike dropped them and picked the, up, so you should ask him really. But I'm gonna try and get to the bottom of this too. Don't worry May-Li, I'll watch them closely." Sasha said, drying up a couple of plates and putting them away.

"Okay, good idea." May-Li agreed.

* * *

Mike soon arrived back with the popcorn, and the residents chose a festive film to watch! This year, they opted for The Grinch. Mike handed round a few large bowls of popcorn to share. One was placed between Jody and Tyler, who had ended up next to each other in the sofa. As promised, Sasha watched them closely. She noticed that, as they both reached for popcorn L their hands brushed slightly, and they both jumped, which Sasha found odd, as they shared popcorn all the times so it was bound to have happened before. She noticed Tyler g up and return with his own bowl of popcorn, and instead of returning to his original seat, he made sure that Finn was sat between him and Jody! Sasha, still frowning, reached for some popcorn herself, and as she did, she noticed Ryan, also reaching for some popcorn, frowning too.

"Did you see what I just saw?" Sasha whispered.

"If you're talking about Jody and Tyler acting all weird then yeah, I did." Ryan said.

"What's got into them? I mean I know they went out on that thing yesterday, but it couldn't have been _that_ bad, could it?" Sasha muttered.

"Maybe it's not about it being bad, maybe it was just awkward. I mean they have known each other a really long time." Ryan pointed out.

"But I thought it wasn't a date?" Sasha frowned.

"Yeah, but if you think about it, two people, out for a mean, alone. It's gonna feel a bit like a date, isn't it." Ryan said.

"Okay, that's true." Sasha agreed. "But they can't act like that for the rest if their lives!"

"Oh they'll get over it eventually." Ryan reassured Sasha. The pair looked up and saw Jody frowning at the, in confusion, so they quickly diverted their attention back to the movie.

* * *

Once the movie ended, Mike set up the game pie face for the residents. Him and May-Li joined in too! Mike randomly selected the order, and Sasha made sure to pay careful attention when she noticed that Mike had placed Tyler and Jody respectively next to each other. She picked up on the fact that Tyler, somewhat awkwardly, apologised to Jody when he left it on the brink of pieing right at the end of his turn and she was next, even though that's the idea of the game. And she even noticed that Tyler had some paper towel ready suspecting the fate of Jody's turn - especially after she rolled a 5!

"Err, here." Tyler said, handing Jody the towel after she'd been splattered in the face with whipped cream.

"Oh, um, thanks." Jody said, quickly taking the paper towel and hurrying off in the opposite direction to the opposite end of the room.

"Did you see that?" Ryan asked Sasha.

"Sure did. I can't remember the last time I saw anything so awkward." Sasha said.

"No me neither...what are we gonna do about it?" Ryan questioned.

"What if you talk to Tyler and I'll talk to Jody later on, to see if we can shed some light on what happened last night...that way we can find out exactly why their evening was so awkward and we can somehow get them to talk about it...but one step at a time." Sasha suggested.

"Perfect. We should wait until the party starts, so that it doesn't look too suspicious. And they probably won't be together, so they won't notice if we do it at the same time." Ryan added.

"Yeah. Anyway, your go, and I'm pretty sure Joseph just span it 5 times without getting pied, so good luck!" Exclaimed Sasha, as Ryan rolled his eyes and stepped up to the game.

* * *

Later on, a little while into the party, as planned Sasha and Ryan pulled aside Jody and Tyler respectively.

"Err, hi Jody. Enjoying the party?" Sasha asked, approaching her friend.

"Yeah, it's alright I guess. A bit boring without...never mind. Anyway, what about you?" Jody said, seemingly rushing towards the end.

"Oh, yeah, it's okay I s'pose. Listen, I just wanted to ask you something, like in private." Sasha said.

"In private?" Jody asked suspiciousIy.

"Well, not like properly in private. Just over there by the door where there's less people." Sasha said, dragging Jody to that end of the room upon noticing Ryan talking to Tyler on the opposite side.

"What is it?" Jody questioned.

"Well, obviously I wanna know what happened last night!" Sasha answered.

"What do you mean? Nothing happened last nights! Why do you think anything happened last night?" Jody said uneasily.

"Relax! I just wanna know who won, that's all." Sasha said.

"Oh, right." Jody mumbled.

"So, who won then?" Sasha asked.

"Oh, err, me, of course!" Jody said, without really thinking about her answer.

"You? Remind me what the bet was again?" Sasha frowned.

"That not all boys are like Will; forgetting about their date and flirting with other girls." Jody reminded Sasha.

"And _you_ won?" Sasha asked.p, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

"No." Jody answered.

"You just said you won?" Sasha frowned.

"Well, not technically. I just mean that I got a nice meal for free." Jody explained.

"Okay." Sasha said, not really understanding what just happened! "What was it like? Did anything, y'know, happen?" Sasha asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What! No!" Jody answered, but it was obvious to Sasha that she was lying.

"You kissed, didn't you? That's why it's so awkward between you?" Sasha asked Jody.

"No! Definitely not!" Jody answered defensively, in a tone that Sasha couldn't work out meant she was lying or telling the truth.

"Okay, if you insist. But if that's the case then why is it so awkward between you two today?" Sasha questioned.

"I don't know. It's like, whenever either of us go near each other, we freak out, scared of what we might say." Jody said.

"Sacred of what you might say?" Sasha repeated.

"I don't know. I mean, the longer you hold off talking about your feelings the better I find. Otherwise you just get hurt quicker."

"Do you fancy Tyler?" Sasha asked.

"No! Err, what makes you think that? I definitely do _not_ fancy Tyler!" And with that, Jody left to join the party again, leaving Sasha stood in shock.

"But Tyler would never hurt her." She thought. "And she was _so_ lying about not fancying him! There must be something I can do, once Ryan tells me what Tyler said."

* * *

"Tyler, mate? Can we talk for a sec?" Ryan asked, approaching Tyler. Luckily Tyler was already stood to one side of the room, so Sasha could take Jody to the other.

"What's up?" Tyler asked.

"Oh, not much. Just wanna know what happened last night without everyone else being all demanding. Especially when it seems things are a bit awkward between you and Jody." Ryan explained.

"Oh, right. Well, last night was pretty good. I won, of course." Tyler said.

"Oh, good." Ryan chipped in.

"Yeah. And then...wait I, um, shouldn't tell you what happened without Jody's approval. She, err, might wanna keep this between us." Tyler said. Ryan could tell he was lying to avoid giving away too much about the evening.

"Oh, right. Well, could you maybe tell me why you and Jody are both acting so weird?" Ryan asked.

"We're not acting weird!" Tyler cried defensively.

"Mate you should see yourselves. Getting all jumpy coz you brushed hands whilst grabbing some popcorn. That never happened before last night, and you can't tell me you've never brushed hands like that coz you share popcorn all the time." Ryan said. Tyler sighed.

"Look it doesn't matter. Last night was...good, great actually, but it doesn't matter. I guess I just don't want to spoil that by talking to Jody about it, and she's probably feeling the same. She probably wants some space to think about...stuff." Tyler said.

"What kind of stuff?" Ryan questioned.

"The kinda stuff that happened last night." Tyler answered.

"Like..."

"It doesn't matter. She's probably forgotten most of it already, I mean, I definitely have." Tyler said. Ryan knew he was lying right through his teeth.

"Right...do you, you know, _like_ Jody?" Ryan questioned.

"What! No! Absolutely not! Err, anyway, was that it?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah, err, thanks mate." Ryan said, before Tyler walked off. Ryan continued to frown as he headed over to where Sasha was stood, looking utterly bewildered.

"I wonder if your conversation was as weird as mine." Ryan said.

"Mine was weirder for sure. But I drew one conclusion from it." Sasha announced.

"What was that?" Ryan asked. Sasha smiled slightly, before signalling over to where Jody and Tyler were stood, on opposite sides of the room. But each kept glancing up at the other.

"I think we might be on the same page now." Ryan said.

"So they definitely like each other then?" Sasha asked. Ryan looked up and Jody and Tyler.

"Yep, absolutely."

* * *

After the party had finished and the younger kids had been sent to bed, the older residents; Jody, Tyler, Sasha and Ryan, had been tasked with cleaning up the living room.

"Why do _we_ have to clean up? It's Christmas!" Jody complained.

"I know right! Mike and May-Li are definitely sat in the kitchen eating the leftover snacks whilst we're in here tidying all the mess!" Tyler moaned. Sasha and Ryan noticed that, for the first time in that day, that Jody and Tyler were actually talking with each other, and they made sure to keep their ears pricked as they tidied.

"Why do people run away from their true feelings?" Jody asked aloud, without really realising. Sasha and Ryan shared a glance.

"I, err, don't know...I guess, there's the fear of like, loosing someone, if something didn't work out." Tyler said.

"Yeah but that's stupid. Just because...something doesn't work out the way two people thought it would, doesn't mean they shouldn't be friends." Jody said.

"I guess that's true. But, there's also the fear of rejection." Tyler said, looking up from the floor he was cleaning for the first time. Jody looked up too.

"Maybe." She said. Sasha and Ryan discreetly watched from the other end of the room.

"Actually, you're right." Jody agreed suddenly.

"Really?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah, I mean, loads of people are scared of rejection. Including me." Jody said.

"You? Me too." Tyler said. There was a short, slightly awkward silence.

"What I meant was that's why I never asked Will out."

"Jody, I..." Tyler started.

"Because I was afraid he'd say no." Jody continued. "Yeah."

"It's just, I've been thinking, a lot lately, and..."

"Yeah."

"Nothing, it doesn't matter. I'm pretty much done here, so I'm gonna head to bed." Tyler decided.

"Okay, I've just got a couple more bits to sort out down here, so good night."

"Night, and Merry Christmas." Tyler said, before turning to leave.

"But it's not Christmas yet." Jody frowned.

"Have you checked the time?" Tyler asked, Jody quickly glanced at the clock on the wall, and to be fair, it was gone midnight.

"Have we really be cleaning for two and a half hours!" Exclaimed Jody.

"No! Remember we all played one last game of pie face after the little ones went to bed." Tyler reminded Jody.

"True. Anyway, good night, and Merry Christmas. You're gonna live your present!" Jody said.

"You're gonna love your's more!" Tyler exclaimed, before leaving and heading upstairs.

"You idiot, Jody. That was the perfect opportunity." Jody mumbled to herself, as she grabbed a few bits of rubbish off of the floor. And put them in the bin, before leaving the room to head upstairs herself. Sasha and Ryan quickly realised that Jody and Tyler had forgotten that they were in the room. They laughed to themselves slightly.

"We've gotta make sure they end up under some mistletoe tomorrow." Sasha said, half joking, half serious. Ryan smiled and nodded.

"Absolutely."

* * *

 **And voila! My Christmas story 2017 complete! Please let me know what you think! Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed and favourited this story, it means the world to have your support! Sadly, TDG series 5 ended on Friday with Dumping Ground Island, a DG movie of sorts, an episode which I really enjoyed! Fingers crossed for a series 6 in 2018! Let me know what else you want to see from me, as I only have Lottery going at the moment! Not a full length story, as I don't want to get distracted from Lottery, but oneshots, or 2-3 chapter short stories are fine! Leave a review or PM me your ideas! I won't be seeing you now until the new year, so have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! New Year's Resolution 2018: update Lottery quicker! Hopefully see you soon with a Lottery update!**

 **~ Fanatic1234**


	7. Valentine's Day Finale

**Surprise! So I made the decision (literally 2 days ago) to do one last chapter of this story, as a Valentine's Day one shot, since a few of you wanted to see more and weren't keen on the cliffhanger! I hope you like the ending of the story and it's how you wanted it to end! Without further ado, here's the last chapter...**

* * *

2 months later, Jody, Tyler, Sasha and Ryan arrived at their secondary school together and made their way over to the row of lockers outside their form room.

"This is literally the worst day of the year." Sasha commented, taking note that the day was Valentine's Day, and the corridors had been decked with many heart and rose decorations.

"I don't have anything against Valentine's Day but this is extreme." Tyler said, signalling to the many decorations around the corridor.

"Yeah they've never done anything like this before." Jody pointed out, opening up her locker. She was about to put some of her books inside when she noticed a small envelope with her name on sat on top of one of the books already in the locker. She frowned and picked it up to inspect it further.

"What's that?" Ryan asked.

"I don't know. I just found it in my locker." Jody answered, still frowning.

"Well, open it!" Sasha urged. So Jody opened the envelope and read the contents of the card to herself, her frown deepening as she read.

"What is it then?" Tyler questioned.

"It's a Valentine's card." Jody said, showing the card to her friends.

"Aw, this is so sweet!" Sasha cried as she read the card.

"Who's it from?" Ryan asked, as Sasha handed him the card to read.

"I don't know, they haven't signed it, but I recognise the writing." Jody answered.

"Well maybe it's someone from school then." Tyler suggested.

"Could be." Jody agreed, taking the card back from Tyler, who'd just finished reading it. "I mean, this is so weird, the last date I went on was with Will and we all know how _that_ ended." Jody said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, maybe you should track down whoever sent this card and, who knows, maybe you'll like them back." Sasha suggested.

"I doubt it." Jody said.

"Yeah, but you don't know until you track down whoever sent the card." Ryan pointed out.

"I suppose." Jody agreed.

"That reminds me actually, I never did ask Will what happened that night." Tyler said.

"What are you talking about?" Sasha frowned.

"Well, I promised Jody I'd speak to Will and find out why he left her on their date. I'm sorry Jody I completely forgot! You must think I'm a horrible friend." Tyler said.

"No, I told you not to bother. I figured the answer would probably hurt my feelings." Jody said.

"Are you sure?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah, I don't care, I promise." Jody responded, closing her locker before placing the Valentine's card in her bag.

"Right, well we should probably head to registration, the bell's about to go." Sasha pointed out, and as if on cue the school bell sounded, so the four headed into their registration classroom.

* * *

It was finally time for the final lesson of the day, which for Tyler was maths. He remembered his conversation with Jody that morning about Will, and decided to take this lesson as an opportunity to find out what happened on the night of Will and Jody's date two months ago.

"Tyler, do you know the answer to question six?" Will asked Tyler, as they worked through a set of maths problems.

"No, I'm not there yet." Tyler answered.

"Are you alright? You seem a bit distracted?" Will questioned.

"Yeah I'm fine, it's just...it's nothing." Tyler said.

"What is it? C'mon know you can tell me!" Will urged.

"Okay fine. Something reminded me today about the date you went on with Jody, and I just wanna know why you left her on her own." Tyler admitted.

"Jody? I don't think I've been on a date with anyone called Jody." Will frowned in confusion.

"What? In December, you took her to a restaurant in town and you left her sitting by herself at the table whilst you were apparently flirting with another girl." Tyler prompted Will, who continued to frown.

"Sorry Tyler I really don't remember this." He said. "I mean why would I now that I've got a girlfriend? I'm not gonna remember random dates I went on two months ago."

"Wait, you have a girlfriend? Since when?" Tyler asked.

"Since December, it was right before Christmas actually." Will replied.

"You've had a girlfriend since Christmas and I'm only just finding out now!" Exclaimed Tyler.

"You never asked." Will pointed out.

"Wait, hold on, how did you and your girlfriend meet?" Tyler questioned.

"In a restaurant in town...oh wait, that might be the night that Jody and were on a date. In fact it definitely was coz she's the only girl who's ever left me on a date and it was that same night I met Holly." Will remembered.

"Jody only left coz she saw you flirting with another girl." Tyler pointed out.

"Oh, she saw that? I just thought she assumed I wasn't coming back." Will said, slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah, she saw, and you really upset her. So what happened?" Tyler asked.

"She just wasn't my type." Will shrugged, about to continue the maths work.

"That's it? You just left her sitting there alone on her first ever date coz she wasn't your type? That's way out of line!" Tyler exclaimed, starting to lose his temper.

"Yeah. Don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing, coz I know you would've." Will said. Tyler opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by the bell sounding for the end of the day, so sighing, he quickly gathered his things and left the classroom before he could lose his temper anymore with Will.

"Tyler?" Jody called after her friend, having just left the classroom next door. She realised that Tyler hadn't heard her, as he rushed off down the stairs. She could tell he was upset or angry about something, so quickly made her way to the stairs to try and catch up with him. But before she could reach the stairs, she felt herself collide with somebody.

"Sorry." She quickly apologised, and then looked up and saw who it was; Will.

"Oh, hi Jody." Will said.

"Hi." Jody responded, slightly upset and awkward. "Do you know what's up with Tyler? He seemed kind of angry a minute ago."

"Oh, I don't know. He just left in a huff." Will lied, realising that he was the reason Tyler was angry.

"Oh, okay, well I'd better try and catch up with him." Jody said.

"Yeah, good idea." Will agreed, so the pair headed off in their separate directions. Jody didn't catch up with Tyler until she reached the place they would usually meet after school, along with the other residents who went to their school.

"There you are." Jody said, approaching her friend.

"Where else would I be?" Tyler asked, confused.

"I just mean you seemed in a rush." Jody explained. "And you seemed upset, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Tyler lied.

"I know you're lying to me Tyler." Jody said. "So just tell me what's up?"

"Okay fine. I'll tell you when we get back." Tyler said, noticing Sasha and Ryan walking over to the pair. Jody nodded, and soon enough, everyone was met up and on their way home.

* * *

Upon arriving back at Ashdene Ridge, Jody and Tyler found themselves in Tyler's room sat on the bed to talk.

"Right then what's going on?" Jody asked.

"I don't know if I should tell you." Tyler admitted.

"What, why? Can't you trust me?" Jody questioned.

"No it's not that! It might hurt your feelings that's all." Tyler explained.

"Okay well now you definitely have to tell me." Jody said, frowning slightly.

"Okay but if you get upset, you can't blame me." Tyler said.

"I won't unless you've done something to hurt my feelings." Jody agreed.

"Of course not. Basically I was speaking to Will today and, somehow, we ended up talking about your date." Tyler started.

"What you mean is that you asked him about our date." Jody assumed.

"Anyway, you won't believe this. At first, he didn't even remember the date! Like he'd completely forgotten it ever happened! And then he mentioned that he had a girlfriend, and naturally I asked when they got together, and he told me that he met her at a restaurant in town, which is when he remembered your date. Coz that girl he was flirting with that night is his girlfriend now and they first met that night on the date. And his excuse for leaving you by yourself was that you're not his type." Tyler explained.

"I knew it. I'm not surprised about anything you just said." Jody said.

"I'm really sorry Jody, but in my defence, I told you it would hurt your feelings." Tyler pointed out.

"I'm fine. And it's not your fault." Jody shrugged.

"Anyway, don't you have a Valentine's card? Someone obviously likes you, someone better than Will." Tyler pointed out.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm gonna ask around and see if anyone recognises the writing, coz I recognise it but I can't put my finger on where from. Do you recognise it?" Jody asked, fishing in her bag before handing Tyler the card.

"No, sorry." Tyler answered.

"I'm gonna ask around the house." Jody announced, and then left Tyler's room.

* * *

A little while later, Jody returned to Tyler's room, where Tyler was sat doing homework.

"Well a few people recognised it but didn't know where from and everyone else had no idea, so that was a waste of time." Jody announced, sitting down on Tyler's bed.

"That's a shame. Did you ask Mike and May-Li?" Tyler asked.

"No, good idea. What are you doing anyway? Did the teachers finally realise you've done no homework all year?" Jody asked, approaching her friend and peering over his shoulder at the work he was doing.

"Yeah pretty much." Tyler answered, but Jody was hardly listening. She looked from the page of Tyler's work and then back to the card in her hand.

"Do you think this is funny?" Jody snapped, making Tyler jump slightly.

"What?" He frowned.

"Don't play games with me Tyler! Are you mocking me because of what happened with Will? Or because I've never had a Valentine's card before?" Jody shouted.

"I still have no idea what you're on about." Tyler pointed out.

"The card! Don't play dumb with me Tyler I know it's from you! I'm looking at your work right now and it's an exact match to the writing in the card." Jody explained, holding up Tyler's schoolbook next to the Valentine's card.

"Oh!" Tyler exclaimed, and was about to say more but Jody got there first.

"If you thought this would be a great prank then you thought wrong! Writing that card was so cruel, especially since you know what happened on my last date." Jody said, making her way to the door to leave Tyler's room.

"What no! Jody wait! Honestly I..." Tyler called, but he realised she was already gone.

"I really, really like you." He mumbled, wishing Jody could hear him.

"Okay, so you either really, really like me, or Jody, who I've just seen leave your room." Sasha joked, knowing which was more likely.

"It was about Jody but I was only joking." Tyler said, turning to re-enter his room.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Ryan said, suddenly appearing from round the corner, startling both Tyler and Sasha.

"Where did you come from?" Tyler asked, frowning.

"Jody seemed upset when she left your room, Tyler. And, who knows. If you tell Sasha you're only joking, she could tell Jody you said that, and who knows, maybe Jody likes you too, and that would upset her even more. So you're best off just telling the truth now." Ryan explained. Tyler sighed.

"Okay fine, I wasn't joking. I like Jody. I even sent her the Valentine's card. But she thinks it was a joke, and now she's angry with me and won't listen to me when I try to explain that it wasn't a joke and that I do like her." Tyler explained.

"Well first off, we kind of worked out you like Jody anyway..." Ryan started.

"What! Then why did you con me into admitting it?" Tyler asked.

"Why not?" Sasha shrugged.

"And secondly, I was recording you and Jody talking, and I caught you admitting you liked her at the end. So just play that to her, and everything's fixed." Ryan suggested.

"Can we just go back a minute, you were recording mine and Jody's _private_ conversation?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah." Ryan shrugged.

"Why?" Tyler questioned.

"Well, ever since that dinner thingy you did back in December, Sasha and I like to record your conversations to try and prove that you two like each other." Ryan explained.

"Well, that's really weird, but it's actually helped me out! Now I can prove to Jody that I really do like her and that the card wasn't a joke! All I need to do is play her that recording and she'll see the truth! I don't suppose you could sent it over to me Ryan?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah sure." Ryan agreed.

"Great, thanks. I'll wait until after dinner, to give her some time to think about everything I told her about Will." Tyler decided.

"What about Will?" Sasha asked. So Tyler explained Will's behaviour on his and Jody's date to Sasha and Ryan and before long it was dinner.

* * *

Jody continued giving Tyler the cold shoulder over dinner, making sure she was sat at the opposite end of the table to him, which didn't go unnoticed by some of the residents, and Mike and May-Li. After dinner, Tyler waited until he was sure Jody was in her room to speak to her. He took a deep breath before knocking on the door. Jody opened it.

"I don't want to talk to you." Jody said instantly.

"Please let me explain." Tyler begged.

"No, you've done enough." Jody said.

"That may be the case but can I at least explain it?" Tyler asked. Jody rolled her eyes.

"You have two minutes to explain yourself." Jody said.

"Okay, well for starters, you're my best friend. Do you really think I'd send a card to tease you even though I know what happened with Will hurt you, no matter how many times you try to convince me otherwise? Coz best friends are supposed to know when each other are hurt, and I could tell that night when you came back that you were really hurt. And I would never do anything to make fun of that. And also..." Tyler stopped talking, noticing that Jody was biting her lip and looked as though she was about to start crying at any minute.

"You're right." Jody realised. "I'm so sorry Tyler, I should've known you'd never do anything like that." Jody said, quickly hugging her friend, which Tyler noted was out of character, and was probably to hide the fact that she was almost crying.

"Hey, it's alright, you're probably still getting your head around what I told you earlier." Tyler said.

"Yeah, I mean I never normally admit when I'm upset, but I was earlier when you told me about Will, just because it confirmed what I thought at the time. I never even wanted you to know I was upset but you can usually tell anyway. I was just so confused by the card when I first realised it was from you, but I know you'd never tease me over something that hurt my feelings." Jody explained.

"It's okay for you to be upset about Will, I mean he treated you horribly! You didn't need to pretend to be okay about it; now or at the time." Tyler told Jody.

"So are we okay? I know I was out of line accusing you like that but..."

"Yes, of course we're okay! Right, well you're probably busy, so I'll leave you to it." Tyler said, heading for the door, and closing it behind him. He stood outside the door for a minute, dissatisfied with how the conversation between him and Jody had ended, as he was ready to admit his feelings to Jody. Sasha appeared round the corner, and after taking one look at Tyler's face she knew exactly what had happened.

"You didn't tell her, did you?" She asked. Tyler shook his head.

"Why not?" Sasha questioned.

"She forgave me before I had to." Tyler explained.

"But if that's the case, then surely she still has an unexplained Valentine's card from you." Sasha pointed out.

"You're right!" Tyler exclaimed, so Sasha quickly hurried away as Tyler knocked on the door to Jody's room again.

"Come in." Jody called from inside, so Tyler took a deep breath before entering Jody's room again.

"I, um, I realised that I never explained the card." Tyler told his friend.

"Oh. Wait that's a good point, why _did_ you send me a Valentine's card?" Jody frowned.

"Because I like you, duh!" Tyler smiled, sitting down on the bed. Frowning, Jody sat up from where she slouching before, and once she was sat up, she suddenly started laughing, causing Tyler to frown.

"Yeah right!" Jody said, still laughing.

"No! It's true! And if you don't believe me, then you should listen to this." Tyler said, pulling out his phone and playing the clip that Ryan had sent him earlier.

"Why were you recording that conversation?" Jody asked.

"I wasn't, Ryan was." Tyler answered.

"Wait why was Ryan recording that conversation!" Jody exclaimed.

"Apparently him and Sasha like to record us talking to see if we like each other." Tyler replied.

"That's _so_ weird." Jody frowned.

"Yeah that's what I said." Tyler agreed. "But it worked."

"So you actually like me?" Jody asked. Tyler couldn't find the words to answer so could only nod in response.

"Okay, so this is really cheesy, especially on Valentine's Day, but I like you too." Jody admitted.

"Wait really?" Tyler frowned in shock.

"Yeah. Why are you so surprised?" Jody questioned.

"I just didn't expect that to go as smoothly as it did." Tyler answered, reaching into his left sleeve. Jody raised an eyebrow, especially when he produced a red rose.

"I wondered why that arm seemed to be bigger than the other." Jody said. And then she began laughing slightly. "And you do realise you just doubled the cheesiness! Where did you get that from anyway?"

"There was a bunch of them randomly in the office." Tyler answered, as Jody the took the rose.

"So, what happens now?" Jody asked.

"Well I suppose this is the point when I ask you..." Tyler started, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. May-Li opened it looking confused.

"Hey guys, just a quick, weird question. My partner had twelve red roses sent to me today, and now there's only eleven, and I just wondered where..." May-Li stopped talking upon noticing Jody holding the missing rose.

"Oh! Never mind, you can keep it. This is really cute actually! You know I thought this would happen at some point." May-Li mumbled to herself as she shut the door. Jody and Tyler shared a look before bursting out laughing!

* * *

"Wow! I can't believe you're letting me help you with you're second ever date! I must've done a good job the first time!" Candi-Rose squealed.

"I can't believe Tyler finally asked you on a date - took long enough if you ask me!" Chloe exclaimed.

"Yeah, everyone says that." Jody said.

"Oh, and don't worry, I'm sure this date will go a lot smoother than the first one." Chloe reassured Jody, who nodded in agreement.

"When did he ask you again?" Candi-Rose asked.

"Valentine's day, but we decided to wait until the weekend so we weren't too tired for school." Jody explained.

"Aw, that's so sweet!" Candi-Rose commented.

"I can't believe he even left you a Valentine's card!" Chloe exclaimed.

"Anyway, what kind of look are we going for" Candi-Rose asked.

"Well, I wasn't really too big a fan of the skirt last time. So I was thinking jeans." Jody said.

"Maybe that's because of what happened whilst you were wearing the skirt." Candi-Rose pointed out.

"Yeah, I do have some others, if you wanted me to bring them in?" Chloe suggested.

"Okay fine. Just not like the first one okay." Jody said. Chloe nodded and left to get the skirts.

"I know you don't want any makeup, but what about your hair?" Candi-Rose asked.

"I want to put it back this time." Jody said.

"Okay fine." Candi-Rose agreed, slightly disappointed. "And what about the top?"

"Some sort of jumper, since it's cold outside." Jody suggested.

"Okay, let's see." Candi-Rose said, pulling open Jody's wardrobe.

"I like the white one. Not too formal, not too casual." Candi-Rose said, picking out a plain white top.

"It's not that thick, though." Jody pointed, out.

"Oh well! You'll be wearing your coat, and you'll be inside most of the time. Plus you can always borrow Tyler's jacket if you get too cold." Candi-Rose said. Jody frowned.

"Why would I..." She started, but was cut off by Chloe entering the room holding a black skirt with buttons down the front.

"I think this one!" Chloe exclaimed.

"Yes! It goes so perfectly with the top we picked out!" Candi-Rose squealed. "Right, you get changed, and then we'll come back in and sort out footwear."

So Jody quickly got changed and Candi-Rose and Chloe re-entered the room and the three settled on a pair of Chloe's sparkly trainers.

"These shoes are really not my style." Jody said. "Having said that they do look great with this outfit."

"It looks perfect!" Candi-Rose exclaimed, handing Jody her coat. "Don't put it on until you get downstairs, so Tyler can see the whole look."

"He's not gonna care but okay." Jody shrugged, and headed downstairs, where Tyler, and surprisingly Ryan and Sasha (so maybe not so surprisingly!), were already waiting for her.

"Hi!" Jody said.

"Hey." Tyler replied. Sasha gave him a nudge, realising how nervous he was. "You look amazing."

"Thanks." Jody said, looking away as she could feel herself blushing.

"You should get going if you want to make your reservation." Ryan pointed out.

"Good idea." Candi-Rose agreed, and Mike overheard in the office and headed outside to start up the car. Everyone said their goodbyes before Jody and Tyler left for the date.

* * *

"Hey guys." Will said, approaching Jody and Tyler at school the following Monday. He wasn't alone, as he was holding hands with his girlfriend, Holly.

"Hey." Tyler said coldly, turning his attention to his locker.

"I just wanted to congratulate you two." Will said. "I heard about this weekend."

"How?" Tyler asked.

"You told Josh, and he told me." Will explained.

"Now we can go on double dates and stuff!" Exclaimed Holly. Jody and Tyler shared an uneasy glance.

"Hey, why don't you two make up, after what happened last week." Jody suggested, trying to change the subject.

"She's got a point, we didn't exactly leave things in a great place last week. I know I annoyed you, and I'm sorry. To you too Jody, I should never have treated you that way." Will said.

"I'm sorry for walking off and not trying to fix it." Tyler said.

"Looks like things are okay now over here." Sasha pointed out, approaching Jody, Tyler, Will and Holly.

"Yeah." Tyler said.

"You two were so right by the way, I was convinced they were just friends." Will admitted.

"Well, we could see this coming a mile away." Ryan announced, as him and Sasha high-5ed and entered their registration classroom closely followed by Will and Holly.

"I wonder how many people knew we were going to get together before we did?" Tyler questioned, causing Jody to laugh slightly before they held hands and entered their classroom to catch up with their friends.

* * *

 **And there you have it! I really hope you liked the ended, even if it was a bit corny at some points, but that's what Valentine's Day is all about, right! Sorry this wasn't up yesterday for Valentine's Day, but like I said at the start, I thought of this literally two days ago! For any Lottery readers, I will try to update shortly, but college has been hectic lately, but I'm in half term now! Thanks to anyone who's read this story, I really enjoyed writing it back in December and now this Valentine's Day ending! See you soon for Lottery (if you're following) and maybe some other fanfics in the future!**

 **~ Fanatic1234**


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